BIOTECH
The Human Genome Project intends to catalog our entire genome by 2005. A newer, privately funded venture led by former project director Craig Venter plans to complete the task in a mere three years. But Harvard cell biologist Daniel Branton and UC Santa Cruz biophysicist David Deamer are perfecting a technique that could do the job in a day.
The workhorse of today's gene-sequencing industry, the Perkin-Elmer machine, can crunch DNA only in small fragments. Scientists must then feed the genetic data into a computer, where it's stitched back together by matching the overlapping sequences at the ends of the DNA fragments.
To dramatically accelerate this process, Branton and Deamer have designed an electrically charged membrane that unlocks chunks of genetic code almost instantly. While pulling strands of negatively charged DNA through pores in the membrane, the researchers use electrical fluctuations to read protein sequences. "We have resolved segments as short as 15 bases," says Branton. "We expect to achieve resolution of a single base in one year."
"We could read 100,000 base pairs per second if we could differentiate signal from noise," says Deamer. "But first, we'll slow this down to 1,000 bases per second for greater accuracy."
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